Casiotone CT-S1000V and CT-S500 arranger keyboards

[RandyFF]

On 2/14/2022 at 6:37 AM, Przemodae said:

I undestand that CT-S500 has the same and lots of more tones, but still I'm interested in quality of sound, especialy after connecting it to mixer or external speakers. I don't need hundreds of tones. I need a few, because I look for something like digital piano in small version (I don't have enough space for 88-key piano). For me It's a pity that CT-S1 hasn't got 1/4" audio outputs. It'would be great solution which Casio should have in mind. Because of that I'm curious which Casiotone will sound like a pro at gigs with a band and which has better speakers in use for rehearsals.

Hey, another board to look at is the CT-X5000.  

 

With 30 watts of power it gets really loud and has decent bass, night and day from the 5 watt boards.  The sounds are giggable, which is the first time I’ve seen this on a sub $500 board.  Compared to A list gear that’s typically in the thousands of dollars, I would put these as B list, decent and serviceable, I esp like the Piano.    It has a lot of features the S500 doesn’t have, but the UI is a bit convoluted, and of course the S500 has features/qualities lacking in the X5000.

 

The CT-X5000 probably has the same sounds as the CT-S500, Mike Martin would be able to answer that.  

[Sam Mullins]

Just ordered my CT-S500 as replacement for my CT-S1.  Primarily still for couch keyboard, but with the split feature and extra controls (pitch, 3 knobs and control pedal), I would consider doing a quickie/street gig with the CT-S500 and an iPad.

 

Will probably have my CT-S1 (with bluetooth adapter) on the garage sale soon if anyone's interested.

 

[ProfD]

15 hours ago, RandyFF said:

With 30 watts of power it gets really loud and has decent bass, night and day from the 5 watt boards.  

Not to hijack your post but here is a PSA to readers...😁

 

Context is everything. To those KB players engaged in volume wars due to playing in a loud azz band, this gain means nothing.🤣😎

[Mike Martin]

16 hours ago, RandyFF said:

Hey Mike, does the CT-s500 have the same keybed as the CT-X3000/5000?  The CT-s300?

 

It is the same keybed as the CT-S300.  If you've played the CT-S300, I can only suggest that the CT-S500 will feel better as the sounds are a lot better.

[Mike Martin]

16 hours ago, RandyFF said:

The CT-X5000 probably has the same sounds as the CT-S500, Mike Martin would be able to answer that.  

 

Actually no, the CT-S500 has all majority of sounds of the CT-X5000 but the CT-S500 has many newly developed sounds that you won't find in the CT-X5000.

 

The advantage of the CT-X5000 is the arranger functionality and the speaker system. 

[RandyFF]

Thanks for the insider info, much appreciated!

 

As the owner of the CT-X5000 I thought the CT-S500 was of little interest to me.  But given

- the keybed is the same as CT-S300 (I believe I liked it better than the X5000 keybed)

- weighs 10 pounds vs 15 and is 10” deep vs 15”

- has 2 control knobs

- has a simpler UI

- can run off of batteries

- has new sounds, and best of all 

- has a button to attach a strap for keytar playing

 

 

Given all that, it would be useful to me beyond what the X5000 is, as a couch board, as a grab and go board.

 

So- can the S500 use rechargeable batteries?

And how many new sounds are there? What sounds are they?

 

 

[Sam Mullins]

I checked the manual and it is the same as CT-S1 which can use rechargeable batteries. I keep two sets to swap and haven’t plugged my CT-S1 in 9 months.

[Mike Martin]

16 hours ago, RandyFF said:

And how many new sounds are there? What sounds are they?

Off the top of my head...
First it has all the new CT-S1 sounds which include CP-electric grands, string machines, mellotron flutes, OBX brass, vibraphones, the "Classic Casio" sounds and more.
In addition to those there are also a ton of new guitars, other synths. 

[Sam Mullins]

Got my CT-S500 yesterday and really impressed with the increased sound and functionality.  Lots of good stuff under the hood.  I really do think I could do some casual gigs with just this keyboard (and maybe an iPad.)  

 

The registration programming paradigm is different than what I’m used to but I’m getting the hang of it.  I’m not one of these people who is going to complain about why feature X from my Kronos isn’t on this $380 keyboard.  My one complaint is that you can’t name registrations; makes it harder to use live for sure.  You can change the names on Setups which is similar functionality so I don’t really understand this limitation.

 

Also, I want to second the shoutout to Paul Drongowski and his blog on the CT-S500/1000V. Very helpful.

 

[stoken6]

2 hours ago, Sam Mullins said:

Also, I want to second the shoutout to Paul Drongowski and his blog on the CT-S500/1000V. Very helpful.

Portamento? FC7 support? Leslie + C/V? This (CT-S500) is actually a fairly serious little board disguised as a toy home keyboard. I've no need for the vocal synthesis stuff on the 1000.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[RandyFF]

On 4/15/2022 at 5:21 PM, Sam Mullins said:

I checked the manual and it is the same as CT-S1 which can use rechargeable batteries. I keep two sets to swap and haven’t plugged my CT-S1 in 9 months.

Thanks Sam!  I imagine you’d get 3 or so hours on one charge?

[RandyFF]

On 4/16/2022 at 7:06 AM, Mike Martin said:

Off the top of my head...
First it has all the new CT-S1 sounds which include CP-electric grands, string machines, mellotron flutes, OBX brass, vibraphones, the "Classic Casio" sounds and more.
In addition to those there are also a ton of new guitars, other synths. 

Thanks Mike.  

 

Even having the CT-X5000, the S500 is giving me GAS.  The one thing that gives me pause is that there’s very little tone editing and no naming- apparently EQ, effects, Part volume and splits/layering are the only things on offer, which are saved as Registrations. 

[Sam Mullins]

12 minutes ago, RandyFF said:

Thanks Sam!  I imagine you’d get 3 or so hours on one charge?

Yeah that seems about right.  Got my CT-S500 yesterday and went through one charge and it was probably in that same range. My rechargeable batteries are also a year old, so it’s possible you could do a little better with new ones. I’m also guessing using bluetooth would drain it a little faster. 

[Sam Mullins]

11 minutes ago, RandyFF said:

Thanks Mike.  

 

Even having the CT-X5000, the S500 is giving me GAS.  The one thing that gives me pause is that there’s very little tone editing and no naming- apparently EQ, effects, Part volume and splits/layering are the only things on offer, which are saved as Registrations. 

It's not really extensive but more than what you reference here , e.g. resonance, cutoff, attack and release times, modulation  and vibrato amounts, eq.  See page 62 of user guide for list.  

[RandyFF]

Another plus for the CT-S500/1000 compared to the CT-X5000: they both include the dongle for BT audio.  The s1000v is only $70 more than the s500 (I thought it was $100 more) Though by the looks of the fantastic write-up by Paul, you’d have something of a deep dive to get up to speed with the vocal synthesis capabilities.  I wish they had ALSO put a microphone input on both of them, very useful!

 

Another shout out to Paul Drongowski and his considerable work on getting up and running on the CT-S1000, including understanding how the vocal synthesis works.  Every manufacturer needs to have incentives in place for end users to make detailed setup guides like he did!!

 

Keep in mind that he did an Initial Impressions mini-review, but on a different page he went on and on about various aspects of the board, which is found here.

[pjd]

On 4/18/2022 at 10:56 AM, RandyFF said:

Another shout out to Paul Drongowski and his considerable work on getting up and running on the CT-S1000, including understanding how the vocal synthesis works. 

 

Also, I want to second the shoutout to Paul Drongowski and his blog on the CT-S500/1000V. Very helpful.

 

Hi Sam and Randy --

 

Just saw your comments. Thank you very much for your kind words.

 

Our regular pianist called in with COVID (!) on Good Friday, so I held down Easter service alone with the CT and survived. About six services under the belt with it so far.

 

Direct links to the CT-S1000V/CT-S500 content below. Everything but vocal synthesis applies equally to the S1000V and S500.

 

Thanks, again -- pj

 

http://sandsoftwaresound.net/new-casio-portable-keyboards/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-first-impressions/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-observations/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-quick-tips/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-drawbar-organ-tones/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-about-them-effects/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-more-tips/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-master-eq/
http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-free-registration-banks/
 

[Mike Martin]

@pjd

Thanks for all of the incredible resources you have created. I see that you had a few questions for Casio in your blog. I'll do my best to get back to you and answer those as soon as possible. 

[Sam Mullins]

I just got this rifle bag for CT-S500. Fits well and has extra pockets for cables and pedals.  
 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L9W2KX5/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GA844A5KMH1TW6V27ZZ8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

[pjd]

On 4/19/2022 at 4:36 PM, Mike Martin said:

@pjd

Thanks for all of the incredible resources you have created. I see that you had a few questions for Casio in your blog. I'll do my best to get back to you and answer those as soon as possible. 

 

Hi Mike --

 

Thanks, again! No problem -- I've got plenty to keep me busy these days.

 

-- pj

 

[D. Gauss]

What the heck? There's like a million organs patches in this box and NOT one of them has the leslie fast/slow ability BUILT IN to the preset and controlled by one of the buttons. i.e. Hitting the mod wheel turns on some cheesy ass modulation instead of a leslie fx.  What's that nonsense all about? Am i missing something?

[Mike Martin]

11 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

NOT one of them has the leslie fast/slow ability BUILT IN to the preset and controlled by one of the buttons

 

Yes unfortunately that is the case. The button can't control the rotary speaker effect. It has to be done from the one of the knobs. I'll upload some pre-programmed ones for you asap.

[D. Gauss]

thanks for reply, but none of the knobs do it either.

 

try this:

-look at page EN-290 of the manual

-it lists ALL the organ tone presets. (there's 41 organs!)  cool.

-In column six, you can see that ALL but 6 of those presets are DSP based tones. cool. they have DSP!

-select patch 100 on the casio. "jazz organ." hey, it's a cool organ with a fast leslie! Chart says it has DSP

-now let's toggle that speed to slow

-knob 3?  nope! terrible modulation

-knob k1? nope!  stupid filter

-knob k2? nope resonance

-OK no problem. it was mentioned upthread that the knobs are globally assignable and default to the afore mentioned parameters.

-hit physical "home button"

-hit "knob"  button on screen.  cool i see the assignments for K1, 2 and 3!

-select "knob 1"  and scroll through the parameters.  cutoff, modulation, delay send, etc.

-21 parameters, but NO fast slow. ay yi yi! how is this possible? the manual says it is a dsp tone. let's doublecheck

-hit physical "home" button

-hit physical "menu" button

-select "active DSP" on screen

-select "parameter" on screen.  wow, it says "rotary!" cool

-select "back" on screen

-select "knob" on screen. holy crap, look at that! K1 is speed fast/slow, K2 is brake and K3 is rate. This is awesome.  

 

sure enough, there it all is ...BUT you can't simply toggle fast/ slow speed without making and saving a registration?  that is messed up.

[allan_evett]

31 minutes ago, Mike Martin said:

 

Yes unfortunately that is the case. The button can't control the rotary speaker effect. It has to be done from the one of the knobs. I'll upload some pre-programmed ones for you asap.

 

That'll be great; would enjoy trying those as well.

I just started exploring my CT-S500 more in-depth last night. Though I used a USB and Audio hub with my CT-S400 - iPad combination (playing software instruments via USB-MID, then routing audio back into the CT-S), it looks like both functions could be covered with the Bluetooth adapter. Still trying to figure out 'low-impact MIDI' within the iPad SI apps, though. 

 

Did have some fun playing with the B3-X app, and got some control functions happening.  Also loaded in the free Registration banks from Sand, software and sound; very nice! Thanks Paul!

[D. Gauss]

Mike Martin said: Posted January 21

Quote

Mike Martin said: Posted January 21

  On 1/21/2022 at 1:28 PM, AnotherScott said:

Does it have all the sounds the CT-S1 has?

Yes. 

 

  On 1/21/2022 at 1:36 PM, D. Gauss said:

would like to know that , too.  also can the leslie fast/slow speed be changed in the organ patches. (my main peeve about the ct-s1)

Yes.

 

 

  fwiw, this post was why i bought the ct-s1000v after already buying the ct-s1.   Grrrrr. the peeve remains.

[pjd]

3 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

-select "knob" on screen. holy crap, look at that! K1 is speed fast/slow, K2 is brake and K3 is rate. This is awesome.  

 

sure enough, there it all is ...BUT you can't simply toggle fast/ slow speed without making and saving a registration?  that is messed up.

 

That's how I have the knobs set up, too. Fortunately, the speed switches in the middle of the range and it only takes a little turn post the mid-point -- a much smaller gesture than throwing the knob from complete left to complete right, or vice verse.

 

Setting a registration doesn't bother me too much because I usually customize everything and save patches in presets (registrations).

 

I agree that a switch would be better simply because a knob turn is more difficult to execute than a mod wheel swipe. It would also be great to switch rotary speed using the (sustain) pedal. That's my number 1 request for any future update.

 

Still happy with the CT-S1000V overall. I need to write a serious review of the voices that I use. Someday...

 

All the best -- pj

 

P.S. I have posted some registration banks: http://sandsoftwaresound.net/casio-ct-s1000v-free-registration-banks/

Bank 4 has drawbar registrations with the knobs set up for rotary control.

[D. Gauss]

12 minutes ago, pjd said:

 

It would also be great to switch rotary speed using the (sustain) pedal. That's my number 1 request for any future update.

 

 

 

it would be great IF you could actually change the rotary speed at all.  you can't do it inside a preset. that is my point.  i.e. who plays organ (that has a leslie sound on it) and doesn't want to ever switch speeds?   all the pieces are there to do it. IMO, Casio for some reason missed the boat big time on this.

 

p.s. yes, i have those registrations you made. lots of good info on your blog.!

[pjd]

6 hours ago, D. Gauss said:

it would be great IF you could actually change the rotary speed at all.  you can't do it inside a preset. that is my point.  i.e. who plays organ (that has a leslie sound on it) and doesn't want to ever switch speeds?   all the pieces are there to do it. IMO, Casio for some reason missed the boat big time on this.

 

p.s. yes, i have those registrations you made. lots of good info on your blog.!

 

Yeah, I agree. Sometimes I wonder if the development engineers (or whoever steers the development ship) have any playing experience. 😀 It's a sales thing, too -- like putting the best piano in the first preset location. Making rotary speed control obvious and easy should be the law.

 

Glad the info on the site is helping out -- pj

 

[D. Gauss]

54 minutes ago, pjd said:

 

Yeah, I agree. Sometimes I wonder if the development engineers (or whoever steers the development ship) have any playing experience. 😀 <> Making rotary speed control obvious and easy should be the law.

 

 

 

 

well said!

[D. Gauss]

How do you quickly return to Patch/Preset 1?

Checked the manual couldn't find anything.  Is there a way to jump instantly back to the default piano (preset 1) like you can on many keyboards (including the CT-S1). What my buddy calls the "idiot button."  I looked at the options for programming "long hold" on buttons, but didn't see that as an option.  Sure would be appreciated if someone knows how. 

[Mike Martin]

While scrolling through tones if you press -/+ simultaneously that returns you to piano. 

I personally have it set up as the first registration as well.